Biology & Adolescence Education | Grades 7-12

Program Overview

The Biology and Adolescence Education program prepares future biology teachers for grades 7-12, emphasizing pedagogy and specialized coursework in oceanography, forensics, and more. Graduates are eligible for certification in Secondary Education, Grades 7–12 in Biology from the New York State Education Department and can pursue careers as high school biology teachers or in other science-related fields. The program is taught by experienced faculty and includes hands-on learning, research opportunities, and a student teaching experience.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

Overview:

The Biology and Adolescence Education program, accredited by the National Science Teachers Association, prepares future biology teachers to teach in grades 7-12. Students studying biology education will engage in four core courses and then specialize in secondary biology education. The program emphasizes pedagogy, and includes specialized coursework in oceanography, forensics, and other intriguing topics. With support from dedicated professors, graduates have gone on to inspire future generations with their passion for science.

Objectives:

Secondary Education Program Goals

• Candidates will comprehend, explicate, examine, and enforce essential ideas, standards, suppositions, and inherent ideas of secondary education courses that engage the cognitive and intellectual evolution of adolescent learners.
• Candidates will construct opportunities for learning and appraisal techniques which reflect an awareness of adolescent learners in approaches that value and respond to the diversity of the student body and involve family and community assets to amplify the curriculum, while fulfilling the learning benchmarks of the candidate’s content region of analysis.

Goals of the School of Education

• Content Knowledge: Candidates demonstrate a robust substance information foundation that empowers them to deliver compelling instructive and professional services predicated on recent research, hypothesis, and practice
• Pedagogical and Professional Knowledge: Candidates wield varied pedagogical and professional tactics and implements to empower themselves to be compelling practitioners in educational settings and deliver services that sponsor understudies’ intellectual, social, and emotional improvement
• Diversity: Candidates comprehend the varied cultural, linguistic, learning, and social strengths and necessities of all demographics, and assimilate and mirror awareness to the richness of assorted civilizations when furnishing instructive and other school services.
• Technology: Candidates utilize technology to deliver data, instruction, and professional services to all associates of the school community
• Reflection: Candidates reflect on professional practice to make instructive choices and enhance understudy learning
• Dispositions: Candidates exhibit optimistic dispositions that empower them to function as compelling instructors, citizenry, and practitioners within the school and broader community.

Outline:

• The curriculum includes 141 credits divided into General Liberal Arts and Sciences (60 credits), Biology and Secondary Education (45 credits), and Secondary Education Graduate Courses (15 credits for the B.S.
degree and 21 credits for the M.S. degree).
• Students must complete the following undergraduate prerequisites for Secondary Education, Grades 7–12 in Biology Certification: Communications, Humanities, Written Analysis and Expression, Historical and Social Sciences, Scientific Processes, Mathematical Processes, Artistic Expression, Information Retrieval, and Language other than English.
• The required undergraduate courses include: EDU Fnd Diverse Perspectives, Fndtns Educ Sdnts w/Dsblts, Tchng English as 2nd Lang, Aprchs Lit: EChldhd-Adolescenc, and Educ Psych & Adlscnt Dvlpmnt.
• The graduate coursework includes courses in curriculum development, instructional methods, and assessment.
• Students must complete practicum experiences in a variety of settings.
• The program culminates in a student teaching experience.

Assessment:

• Students are assessed through a variety of methods, including written assignments, presentations, and exams.
• Students must also complete a portfolio of their work.
• Graduates of the program are eligible for certification in Secondary Education, Grades 7–12 in Biology from the New York State Education Department.

Teaching:

• The program is taught by a team of experienced faculty, consisting of both full-time and part-time instructors.
• The program uses a variety of teaching methods, including: lecture, discussion, laboratory instruction, and field experiences.
• The program has a strong emphasis on hands-on learning, and students are required to complete several practical experiences, including a student teaching experience.
• The program includes opportunities for students to conduct research, present their findings at conferences, and publish their work.

Careers:

• Graduates can find careers as high school biology teachers who instruct students in the principles of biology and prepare them for further studies.
• Average starting salary for secondary school teachers in New York is $85,000
• Graduates may work as science teachers in public or private schools, or they may work as curriculum developers, science writers, or educational consultants.